Be sure to leave your kitchen while these apple pecan cinnamon roll cupcakes are baking. When you reenter the room, you’ll get to experience a sensational smell that is so strong you can almost see it cartoonishly wafting from your oven directly to your nose.  When the cupcakes are done, quickly drizzle the tops with apple cider glaze. Then, dive into your works of art, making sure to lick the warm, gooey apple cinnamon pecan filling off of your fingers as you go. If you somehow have any cupcakes left over, you can reheat them in the microwave for a few seconds before serving.

Yield: 24 cupcakes

Cinnamon Roll Ingredients
2 cups 2% milk
1 tablespoon (.5 oz) active dry yeast
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
6 ½ cups all-purpose flour, divided
2 eggs
¼ cup unsalted butter, room temperature

Filling Ingredients
½ cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons cinnamon
1 cup loosely chopped pecans
2 cups finely chopped tart apples

Directions
In a small saucepan or a microwave oven, warm milk to about 110 F.
In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in the milk.
Add salt and two cups of flour and beat for two minutes.
Beat in eggs and butter.
Stir in the remaining flour a half cup at a time, beating well after each addition.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic (about five minutes).
Place the dough in a large bowl and cover it with a towel.  Set in a warm place and allow to rise for 40 minutes or until approximately doubled in volume.
Roll out dough into a long rectangle about 1/4” thick.

Brush with about half of the melted butter.

To make the filling, in a medium-sized bowl, mix sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, pecans, and apples.
Spread the pecan/apple mixture evenly over the dough, leaving about an inch empty on all sides.

Roll dough over itself from back to front along the long side of the rectangle to form a log. Slice the log into 24 even pieces.

Line cupcake tins with cupcake liners and place each piece of the log in a cupcake liner.  If they don’t fit, fold the ends together to make a “C” shape.  The pieces should come to about the top of the liners.

Cover the cupcake tins and set in a warm place to rise for another 40 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Evenly distribute the remaining ¼ cup of melted butter over the tops of the cupcakes.
Bake for 20 minutes or until the tops are golden.

Apple Cider Glaze Ingredients
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon apple cider

Directions
In a medium-sized bowl, mix powdered sugar and apple cider until fully combined.
Drizzle over cupcakes.

Stefani Pollack is the author of the popular cupcake blog, Cupcake Project. While she loves simple chocolate cupcakes, Stefani prefers creative cupcakes inspired by her favorite flavor combinations. She encourages her readers to branch out and experiment in the kitchen. Why cupcakes? They bring out the kid in us! Visit Stefani at www.cupcakeproject.com.

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